Book comes to the rescue for its ailing writer, Thomas Joseph

The proceeds of Thomas Joseph’s novel to be utilised for his treatment

In an instance of a book coming to the rescue of its writer, the proceeds from a soon-to-be-published novel penned by writer Thomas Joseph could fund his medical expenses.

Mr. Joseph has been bedridden for the past 10 months after a stroke in September last year. When the family scrambled to fund his treatment, the writer’s long-time friend C.T. Thankachan remembered Mr. Joseph telling him of a novel he had written.

“He had invited me to read it a year before he fell ill, but I never got around to it,” said Mr. Thankachan, who immediately told Mr. Joseph’s son Deepak Jesse about the book.

“He was always writing but would never show us what he had written even after he had finished it. I found the book a few weeks after his stroke last year, when his friends told me about it,” said Mr. Jesse.

The book, Ammayude Udaram Adachu, is a work of fantasy that glides through the clouds, topples onto the earth and switches back to the heavens all in 270 pages, according to Mr. Thankachan. Replete with biblical references, priests who become disciples of Satan and abstract dreams, it is the writer’s first novel.

Each of the 28 chapters of the book will contain an illustration by writer and illustrator Bony Thomas.

“The book is dreamlike, so it was both difficult to illustrate and gave me the freedom to express without any realistic requirements,” Mr. Thomas said.

The book will be released on September 1 along with an exhibition of Mr. Thomas’s illustrations.

The illustrations will be available to anybody who would like to contribute to the funds for Mr. Joseph’s treatment in exchange for them.

Mr. Joseph is best known for his short stories and used to write for a few dailies as well.